I had this dream or expectation for myself as a new Mom that I would get Wyatt's picture taken at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months to document his first year of growth. So at 3+ months we headed to Sears and came away with two adorable shots of him smiling! Gave them out to Grandparents and family with the plan that we would update this photo in the future every 3 months. So along comes the 6 month milestone. Hmm...and there it went...and the calendar shows 8 months coming up fast. I tell myself that I need to wait till Ken is home from Japan to get the photos because it is more fun if both of us are sweating it, right? Da-Da is Wyatt's own personal rock star anyway so I thought we couldn't go wrong if he was there. Plus, we should get a family shot as well. Are you laughing yet in anticipation?
The 22nd of August would be the day! All of us dressed casual and in corresponding colors yet not matching. I didn't want the most adorable family photo to be too "awhhhhhhhhh" if you know what I mean. So, we get there on time and wait for our studio to be ready. We start off with the family shot. I realized that it is difficult to get your 7 month old to smile at the young photographer when he is sitting on your lap. Trying all the tricks I can think of and then be composed to look normal myself. What is "normal" anyway? We finish the family shots thinking we have some great photos.
Now it is time for Wyatt's solo shoot. I had brought the squeaky wrench that gets him to smile everytime and had already given it to the young girl taking the photos. So, I position Wyatt as instructed and he sits stoic for every shot as the young girl clicks away. Hello...I want a smiling photo. I am artistic and can understand that those can be great photos, but trust me this boy can smile and I love it when he does! It doesn't help that I want the perfect shot and having a digital camera...I delete a LOT! So, if you can picture me literally sweating to get Wyatt to crack a smile...which he won't. He rather lay on the backdrop with his head down...I think he wanted to sample the texture of the fabric with his tongue. All the while the young photographer is clicking away like these are the best photos. No matter what Ken and I tried he just wasn't feeling it. So...we are done (literally) and I know I don't have one shot of him smiling, but have hope for the family photo. Now we wait as she adds borders and text to different shots so we can buy those as well. As a graphic designer those are not my favorite. Wyatt and I take a few dozen laps around the baby department as we await the viewing. Ken waves us over and I say to Wyatt..."this shall be fun...I bet you didn't smile in any, right?" I hate it when my Mom's intuition is right. The family photo is kinda okay. So we got it. We got one shot of Wyatt, but I don't even know why we did...I won't be giving it out.
That brings us to my dilemma...do we go back at 9 months and try again. I shouldn't give up, right? One bad time shouldn't taint how I feel about going back. The lady photographer we had the first time was awesome so maybe we could get lucky and get someone like her again. I think I will take my own photo shoots as well as a back-up. I may do one outside this weekend to make-up for the "lost shots" and the bad ones which are ready for pick-up! Yea.
Maybe Wyatt felt the pressure because I told him he needed to smile for all the photos because future girlfriends and his wife will be viewing these photos so they needed to be cute. Whoops...too much pressure. The photo at the beginning of this long story is days after the photo shoot and if you look closely you will see he is sporting his two adorable bottom teeth.
Have a wonderful long weekend! Happy Labor Day to all.
1 comment:
Don't give up! Years from now you'll be so glad you did it and having a story to tell makes it even more special. The 3 month pictures of our boys they were completely screaming and wouldn't calm down so we took the photo anyway and whenever I look at it I laugh thinking about how happy they were until the camera started snapping away - their 13 month picture - one is slumping, one is crying and the other one is holding his ears - makes me laugh every time I see it :)
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